How to Get a "Poor Man's" Copyright

Part of the Video Series How to Copyright Your Work

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Video Transcript

How to Get a "Poor Man's" Copyright
Hi, I'm Nathan Boehme writer and film director with Expert Village. In this series, it's all about copyrights. The whole purpose of getting a copyright is to create a paper trail that either a judge or a lawyer would be able to trace back to you in any unfortunate event that some jerk tries to capitalize off of your work. Now if for some reason you are either poor or just too lazy do yourself a proper copyright there is something called a "poor man's copyright" you can try if you like. Simply take a copy of your creative work whether it would be a poem, a song or just a really cool idea that you came up with in your sleep. Stuff it in an envelope then address that envelope to yourself stick a stamp on it and then send it off in the mail. After you receive that copy in the mail don't open it just stick it away in a file somewhere and wait for the day that someone tries to steal your work and you have to take them back to court. Sadly that poor man's copyright that you mailed yourself won't hold up in a court of law nearly as well as an actual register copyright would. But it never hurts to protect yourself any and every way you can.

About the Expert

Expert: Nathan Boehme (bay'mee) is a writer, director, & editor currently living and working in Los Angeles. Read More

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